Apr 27, 2015

A few days ago, word surfaced that little known Chinese device maker Elephone was working towards bringing a monster flagship to the market.

The company itself confirmed it would soon launch a phone capable of dual-booting between Android and Windows. We also saw a few images showcasing the upcoming flagship with a gold/white paint job. This week brings us more official renders of the upcoming phone, which should give prospective customers an image of what to look for (as seen at Giz China). Elephone actually plans to release two models of its new flagship, one powered by Android 5.0 Lollipop only and one capable of switching between Windows 10 and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Sounds pretty intriguing, right?

Elephone to challenge the ASUS ZenFone 2 and Lenovo K80

We already know most of the specs of the handset, including the fact that it will ship out with 4GB of RAM and a powerful quad-core processor of Intel origins. Elephone’s high-end device will also come equipped with an impressive 20.7MP Sony camera on the back and 32GB of internal storage. In the display department, the upcoming model will feature a 5.5-inch display with 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution that will be sustained by a hefty 3,800 mAh battery. Elephone itself said that the dual-boot model would most likely launch in June. The other version of the flagship that will only run Android OS will ship out a little bit earlier, towards the beginning of May, so in a few weeks.

Naturally, the phones will only be available for purchase in China, at least in the beginning. So, if we are to believe the rumors, we should be seeing a Windows 10 device launch as soon as June. It’s interesting to see whether Elephone ends up releasing the dual-boot model internationally, but that’s pretty unlikely, given the history with such devices. Back at CES 2014, ASUS introduced a dual-boot tablet/laptop called the Transformer Book Duet, and even if the device received positive initial feedback, Google and Microsoft ended up sabotaging the company’s efforts of putting it on the market.

So the ASUS Transformer Book Duet turned out to be the device that never was. But if the Elephone dual-boot phone safely stays within the borders of China, it has a big chance of actually becoming a real product.